1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to an appliance controller; and more particularly to an appliance controller having an automatic beverage dispenser shutoff system (ABDSS) for an automatic beverage dispenser system.
2. Description of Related Art
In the prior art, a known dispensing system is connected to wall power and when the water is exhausted the unit or appliance still attempts to run as per its function. One shortcoming of this known dispensing system is that no water supply means the dispensing system can overheat causing elements to burn out, and ruin the system. There is a need in the art to solve this problem.
In general, other patents are known in the art disclosing techniques for sensing water or liquid levels to protect equipment.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,088,491 discloses a low water and pressure control device for a boiler. The device is a mechanical device that senses when the water level falls below a predetermined level, and opens or closes a valve to add water to the boiler. The device receiving water from the boiler is not turned off based on this technique.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,290,049 discloses a safety apparatus for a hot water heater that turns off the fuel supply using a solenoid valve when the temperature gets to high using a magnetic switch. The device receiving water from the hot water heater is not turned off based on this technique.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,496,467 discloses a pump shutoff when the fluid level is low, but does not turn off the device receiving the fluid from the pump.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,614,278 discloses an alarm circuit for shutting off an oil burner when the water level is low; however, no device receiving the hot water from the oil burner is shut off.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,265,598 discloses a technique for de-actuating swimming pool equipment, e.g. pump, when the pool water is low.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,172,089 discloses a pool pump fail safe switch for turning off a pump when the water level in the pool falls below a certain level using a technique based on a float having a permanent magnet incased therein. The device (i.e. appliance) receiving the pumped fluid (i.e. the pool) is not turned off.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,227,806 discloses a lift pump guard using a technique based on two different current flows depending on if the lift pump is pumping together with a selectively actuatable bistable relay. The pump is turned off, not the device receiving the fluid.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,766,835 discloses a hot water tank monitoring system that turns off the energy supply to the hot water tank when the sensed pressure thereof exceeds a certain level. The technique does shut off any device receiving the hot water from the tank.
However, none of these other patents teaches or suggests anything about sensing a fluid level signal in a fluid supply system providing fluid to an appliance, unit or other suitable device, and automatically turning off the appliance, unit or device based on the sensed fluid level signal.